Mount action decisive

March 1, 2013

Mount Aloysius College took a hard line earlier this week after investigating a terroristic threat by a student toward one of his teachers.

After police said Anthony Will Briscoe, 19, of Aultman, Indiana County, threatened to "slit the throat" of his professor in front of her class, the Mount expelled him.

The threat, made on Feb. 12, was discovered on Briscoe's publicly viewable Twitter account and has since been removed.

A day after the tweet was posted, police from Cresson Township and Cresson Borough, along with Mount security, contacted Briscoe and searched his dorm room for weapons.

No weapons were discovered, but police, on Feb. 20, charged Briscoe with terroristic threats, harassment and disorderly conduct. He has a preliminary hearing next month.

Briscoe told police the message "was a joke."

We don't think it's funny, and neither should anyone else.

School security is paramount. There have been too many senseless acts of violence around our country, especially on college campuses, for threats not to be taken seriously, and Mount Aloysius deserves credit for acting swiftly.

This is also an important lesson in the age of social media to be learned - that there is no such thing as a private conversation anymore. When it comes to Facebook and Twitter, once you hit the send button, you can and should be held accountable.

"The college has zero tolerance for threats whether made electronically or otherwise," Jack Coyle, Mount Aloysius director of communications, told the Mirror in an email. "We feel that removing this individual from campus was the appropriate measure."